


five things

by anstaar



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Gen, five things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-07-15
Updated: 2011-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-21 10:25:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anstaar/pseuds/anstaar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a collection of 'five things' stories</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. five vids on the Emperor's bedside table (age twenty three)

**i.** Aczith's Biography of Dorca the Just (because they spend half of their history time in the early years of school learning about him but Gregor doesn't remember one solid fact about the man himself)  
  
 **ii.** A selection of Kshatriya poetry, beautifully illustrated (a birthday present from Cordelia, probably an attempt to help with the frustration he feels knowing he's never going to have the chance to go there and see the landscapes for himself)  
  
 **iii.** A Collection of Betan Fairy Tales (an old gift from Miles after he returned from Beta Colony to show the strange stories Betans read but Gregor had found he really enjoyed the Tale of the Industrious Boy and liked to have it close by)  
  
 **iv.** MELANTHIOS (he keeps this one mostly hidden because Cordelia disapproves, even if she only does it through her eyebrows, but he loves it despite himslef)  
  
 **v.** The pre-edit vid of his coronation (it's one of the only vids he has with his mother)


	2. Five things Gregor promises himself he'll do when he turns twenty, and what he actually does

**i.** He is going to ask to attend a class at the university

(Gregor would chose carefully (he can just imagine the faces of the council if he took a class on democracy in action) but he would like to learn something unconnected to warfare or governance.).   
  
 **ii.** He is going to ask for some time in private (Gregor doesn't have a girl he likes

(or a boy, Cordelia raised him, after all) but he doesn't even have a chance to find out. Every time he approaches someone he can feel the silver eyes watching him and he stays quiet and frozen and distant.)  
  
 **iii.** He is going to explain that he doesn't want a year in the service

(Gregor knows it's an important symbol but it is just a symbol and he's gone through three years of symbolic equality, enough to make his teeth ache. Surely there can be another way.)  
  
 **iv.** He is going to ask about his father

(This is something he practices over and over because Gregor was four years old when his father died and he doesn't remember anything about him. He has a mental image of his mother that feels _right_ when he sees pictures of her but Serg Vorbarra is a stranger in every way and it worries him.)  
  
 **v.** He is going to tell Aral what he means to him

(This isn't something that they talk about. Cordelia loves him and can say it and knows what he means when he hugs her goodbye in front of everybody but there is something closed off in his foster father, something that Gregor can't read. Gregor will be emperor, but first he wants to make sure Aral knows.).   
  
Gregor turns twenty. There are too many security risks for a class. He can just imagine Illyan's dry expression if he tried to explain why he wants time alone. The army is too important to offend. No one speaks about his father and he can't ask why. Aral draws even farther away and holds his control tightly and Gregor doesn't remember what he wanted to tell him. Gregor becomes Emperor and nothing changes


End file.
